Queen Charlotte's Drawing Room

A room filled with music

The focus of the room is on music in the form of the instruments collected by George II. The collection includes a harpsicord by Schudi, which was enjoyed by George III and his family. You can hear this very harpsicord being played in the background as you experience this room. Schudi was a Swiss maker who established one of the leading London keyboard instrument workshops.  

Both George and Charlotte were keen and capable harpsichord players; they held weekly private concerts at their palaces, including Kew. 

As she anxiously waited for news of her husband’s treatment in the years following George’s decline in 1811, it’s possible that these objects reminded Charlotte of happier times when she would play the harpsicord for her husband. 

Fashionable Italian paintings

Standing in Queen Charlotte’s Drawing Room, take a moment to admire the fashionable Italian paintings – collected by George III from Consul Smith, a patron of Canaletto. Smith’s is one of the single most important art collections in the Royal Collection and George's acquisition of these works highlights his love of culture. 

The double wedding of 1818

Here, William, Duke of Clarence (the future William IV) married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Coburg-Meiningen; and Edward, Duke of Kent married Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld – a match that would produce the future Queen Victoria. 

Queen Charlotte was suffering from dropsy and was too ill to travel far from the palace; a double wedding took place here in the Drawing Room instead. 

As you stand in this room today, take a moment to imagine this scene of two royal brides –Adelaide shimmering in a dress of elegant silver tissue and Victoria in 'very rich and elegant gold tissue’ – their grooms and the temporary altar, all brought together in Queen Charlotte’s Drawing Room so she could be present.